- Oh, how I loves me a good corruption case. Few things are as much fun as hearing that a high-ranking government or law enforcement official has been implicated for being dirty, accepting bribes, etc. Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, the No. 2 official in Mexico’s Federal Agency of Investigation from 2003-05, is just such a man. Garcia has been detained by Mexican authorities amidst claims of high-level corruption within security forces battling powerful drug cartels. He’s been placed under house arrest for 40 days as investigators look into the possibility that he leaked information to the Sinaloa cartel in return for monthly payments. And the problem with that is? Is dude not allowed to earn a living? What possible problem could there be with someone who is tasked with policing the country being on the take from those he should be investigating and arresting? Besides, you all act like the Sinaloa cartel has a history of being accused of bribing government officials….oh, you say that they’ve been linked to four Mexican military officers and one soldier, as well as five officials in the organized-crime unit of the Attorney General's Office in the past few weeks? Oh. Well, what do you expect anyhow? The illegal narcotics industry is a highly competitive one, so as the Sinaloa cartel battles several criminal gangs for control of lucrative routes used to bring illegal drugs to consumers in the United States, maybe they have to bend and break a rule or fifty. And yes, in the midst of this gang warfare, hundreds of people have been killed, often decapitated, across northern and western Mexico. All told, More than 4,000 people have been killed this year across Mexico as the gangs fight back against Calderon's crackdown on organized crime. But can you fault them? Oh, that’s right, you can. But don’t begrudge me my love of corruption, because the delicious irony of a law enforcement official on the take from the very criminals he should be arresting is just too hilarious in a twisted, sad way. I guess that the salary of a public servant, be it in the U.S. or Mexico, just doesn’t afford the type of luxurious lifestyle that a man like Garcia is after…..
- It’s taken me a while to get to this one, possibly because I really was rooting for former NFL quarterback and bonafide candidate for biggest NFL Draft bust ever Ryan Leaf to turn his life around. After washing out of the NFL due to a total lack of maturity, production and good decisions, Leaf struggled mightily before landing a gig as the quarterbacks coach (and golf coach) at West Texas A&M. It appeared that he had settled in, found peace and was turning his life around. At least it appeared that way until Leaf was placed on indefinite leave and subsequently resigned following an incident in which he admittedly asked a player for a pill to help him deal with pain in his wrist dating to his NFL playing days. A coach asking a player for drugs of any kind is a really big problem, because it sets a bad example and whether there is a legitimate need for a pain pill or not, obtaining it illegally is clearly a big error. Leaf was in his third season at West Texas A&M after being the second overall pick in the 1998 draft and retiring from the NFL in 2002. For a guy who failed in the NFL because he couldn’t compose himself and get his act together, this is another monumental lapse in judgment. So Ryan, while I hate to see this happen, you clearly still do not get it and may never get it. You need to be somewhere, doing something where you can’t harm anyone else or yourself…..
- Life rudely interrupted the quest to bring down the Company on Prison Break Monday night. With the Company preparing to move Scylla, the supercomputer holding all the vital information on their organization, to keep Michael Scofield and his convict crew from accessing it, time was of the essence. Yet Michael and his team had to deal with three major hurdles. The first was grieving for Brad Bellick, the former Fox River corrections officer and member of their team that they had grown to know and trust despite once being prisoners under his watch. After sacrificing himself to help install a pipe to bisect a water main and get access to the room where Scylla is kept last week, Brad’s remains were slated to be taken care of by Don Self, the Homeland Security agent in charge of Scofield’s team. When the team learns that Bellick’s body won't be returned to his mother for a proper burial in order to keep their mission secret, they are furious. They demand that Self send Bellick’s body to his family or they won't keep pursuring the sixth and final Scylla card. Self capitulates and does the right thing, but in the mean time, the group has to find a way through the elaborate security system surround Scylla. Unfortunately, Michael can't help them because he collapses before they can even leave their warehouse/home. Sarah rushes him to the hospital, where Michael checks in using the fake identity Self has created for him. The ER doctor runs tests and a cat scan is done. While awaiting the results, a doctor suggests that Michael be officially checked in to the hospital and given his own room. However, the sight of police arriving on the floor spooks Michael and Sarah, causing them to reject the offer. The doctor actually tells Michael that he knows who he really is and that he’s not going to turn him it, but that doesn’t stop Michael and Sarah from leaving. They return to the warehouse to await word on the cat scan results, which come at episode’s end. The verdict is that Michael needs immediate surgery to remove a very unique type of hematoma from his brain. He must cope with this as the chase for Scylla becomes more complicated. With Michael in the hospital, Linc and Sucre must resume the attack on the wall that is the last barrier between them and Scylla. That attack screeches to a halt when Sucre steps on a land mine planted in the floor in front of the wall. He spends most of the episode standing in one spot, terrified to move lest he be blown to bits. His hopes for survival hinge first on Gretchen, who is now working with Self and Michael’s team but is also pretending to be aligned with the Company in order to be in a position to score key information. Linc hauls her down into the tunnel where Sucre is trapped and she goes to work trying to disarm the mine. Just as she does, she’s stopped by news that the mine is part of the alarm system and disarming it would set off an alarm. That news comes from Mahone, who is fresh off a visit with David Baker, the man who designed the security system. Mahone went to visit Baker after Michael reviewed the Scylla blueprints at the start of the episode and found Baker’s name encoded in the prints. Mahone goes to see Baker after the team hunts him down in order to get the data necessary to decode the complicated blueprints. Unfortunately, the Company is also coming for Baker because they’ve encountered major complications in trying to move Scylla to a new home in Pennsylvania. General Jonathan Krantz orders Baker brought to him immediately, but Mahone arrives first and after initially posing as Company operative, he comes clean and tries to talk Baker into helping him. Baker won't do it and ends up captured by the Company, but his wife is sympathetic to Mahone and gives him the legend needed to decode the blueprints while also helping him escape. Using the legend, Michael figures out the setup for the security system and discovers a maunal override for the land mine Sucre is standing on. Mahone arrives in time to save Sucre and override the mine, but the team is still left with the challenge of getting through a concrete wall woven with steel fibers inside and then getting across a floor with pressure sensors designed to lock the entire system down if a breathing human being weighing more than 2 lbs. enters the room. There are also microphonic sensors to pick up any sounds, making Scylla, which we finally saw this week (it looks kinda like a black PS3 in a glass case) all but inaccessible. There are no cameras in the room so that there’s no visual evidence of Scylla’s existence, but that appears to be the only positive. Heading into next week, there is the looming surgery for Michael, who could die at any moment without it, and the impossible quest to access Scylla (plus the task of copying the sixth card, belonging to Krantz, in order to access it once they are inside the room), which add up to a heck of an episode next Monday, don’t miss it……
- Brenden Adams of Ellensburg, Washington should probably prepare for a deluge of recruiting letters from college basketball coaches for the next six years. Why so long? Well, Adams is an absurd 7 feet 3 inches tall, and he’s only 12 years old. Yes, dude is 7’3 and he’s not out of junior high yet - that’s not normal. “I don't know of anyone else like Brenden, and I don't think anyone else like Brenden has ever been reported before," said Dr. Melissa Parisi, a geneticist. Fortunately for Brenden, his classmates and friends don’t seem to mind or single him out for his freakish height, which is admirable for kids, a notoriously harsh group on anyone who is different. Maybe it can be attributed to the small town setting of Ellensburg, as small towns tend to be very protective of their own. Still, you can’t help but wonder how a kid who had all of his teeth at 4 months old, was the size of an 8 year old at 4 years old and could look Shaquille O'Neal right in the eye at age 12. He rides a custom-made bike, wears custom made clothing and lives in a house that has door frames rebuilt to accommodate his ginormous height. Not only that, he’s a courageous kid who has also survived a brain tumor, a bleeding disorder and a surgery to remove 12 extra teeth. He must constantly cope with the fact that every single joint in his body is just too big and doesn't work quite right. I’m definitely rooting for Brenden to have a great life, to overcome his many challenges and be successful at whatever he does - basketball or not…..
- So have you been looking to add the entire population of a tiny island off the coast of Asia to your neighborhood? Because if you have, do I have an opportunity for you! Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed, a former-political-prisoner-turned-new-president-of-the-Maldives, wants to relocate his entire country because of the very likely possibility that the Maldives will sink under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels. Nasheed was sworn in Tuesday after unseating Asia's longest-serving leader in the country's first multi-party elections two weeks ago. He now faces the massive challenge of finding a way to save the people and culture of the Maldives, an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands located south-southwest of India. Unfortunately, most of the islands lie just 4.9 feet above sea level and that figure is shrinking rapidly. A report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches by the end of the century, meaning the Maldives are in deep sh*t. Already, they’ve dealt with catastrophic damage by a December 2004 tsunami which killed an estimated 82 people were killed and 26 unaccounted for from a population just over 270,000. Sixty-nine of the archipelago’s islands were completely flooded and a further 30 islands half flooded. Even the capital of Male was also flooded, although sea walls protected it from total destruction. So why not apply a similar barrier around the rest of the country? The government has researched that option and come to the conclusion that this strategy would cost too much. Now, it’s on to Plan B, which centers on setting aside some of the billion dollars a year the nation receives from tourism and spend that money on buying a new homeland. “We will invest in land,” Nasheed said. “We do not want to end up in refugee tents if the worst happens.” While you might think finding the land to relocate 270,000 people might be tough, Nasheed's government says that it has discussed the idea with several countries and found them to be "receptive." I’d suggest just dropping everyone in the middle of North Dakota (lots of land, few people and a lot of buffalo), but that’s just me. But so far, North Dakota isn’t one of the options being considered. At present, land owned by Sri Lanka and India are top choices because of similar cultures, cuisine and climate as the Maldives. If anyone out there has other ideas, I’m sure the government of the Maldives would love to hear from you, shoot them an email….before they’re submerged under the ocean…..
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